Audio 4:09
Coalition disputes predicted budget hole

Anna HendersonUpdated
Mon Nov 05 19:10:00 EST 2012

The Federal Opposition will make a written complaint to Treasury after Coalition policy costings were leaked to the media. Treasury has reportedly costed three Coalition tax policies and found they'll come with a $4.6 billion annual price tag for business. But the Coalition disputes those figures and claims Treasury is being used as a political tool.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: The Federal Opposition is writing to Treasury with a formal complaint after someone leaked Coalition policy costings to the media.

Reports say Treasury costed three Coalition tax policies and found they'd come with a $4.6 billion a year price tag for business. The Coalition disputes those figures and claims the Treasury is being used as a political tool.

JOE HOCKEY: The bottom line here is this. I am writing to Dr Parkinson, the secretary of the Treasury, expressing my alarm that the Treasury analysis of our so-called policies seems to have made it into the public domain.

ANNA HENDERSON: Fairfax newspapers have published an article suggesting three Coalition tax policies will cost business an extra $4.6 billion a year.

According to the report, Treasury has added up the tax levy on big firms to fund the paid parental leave scheme, and the axing of carbon price tax breaks, and small business incentives financed by the mining tax.

Joe Hockey says the figures are wrong, and Treasury didn't take into account crucial spending.

JOE HOCKEY: We've said repeatedly the carbon tax and the mining tax are going to go. Now the mining tax is hardly raising a dollar. But we've also said there are a number of spending initiatives associated with those packages that are going as well so that wasn't taken into account.

ANNA HENDERSON: But he's remaining coy on the details.

JOE HOCKEY: You'll see why they're so wrong when you look at our policies before the next election.

ANNA HENDERSON: Joe Hockey's demanding someone own up to leaking the figures.

JOE HOCKEY: I think there's a great deal of hypocrisy on the Government's part in relation to this. And you know what, it just undermines public confidence in the Treasury when the Government treats the Treasury as a political tool.

ANNA HENDERSON: Speaking from Laos the Prime Minister dodged questions about how the analysis was made public.

JULIA GILLARD: Treasury, full of professional people is doing its job for this Government the same way that Treasury used to do the job for the Howard government. To suggest anything else is an insult to those hard-working professionals and I trust in due course it will be apologised for.

CRAIG EMERSON: It is quite normal when the Coalition or the Opposition parties announce policies, and these are announced policies, for Treasury to cost them.

ANNA HENDERSON: Neither the Treasurer's office or Treasury have been able to tell PM who supplied the figures or whether they're accurate.

Craig Emerson was, however, happy to endorse them.

CRAIG EMERSON: They costed the policies that Mr Abbott has released, and they are Treasury costings and we stand by those costings, just as we stand by the costings or the revenue forecast that Treasury and Finance put to the Government through the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook.

ANNA HENDERSON: Joe Hockey maintains there's a double standard.

JOE HOCKEY: The Commonwealth Government does everything it can to stop any public release of the costings of Greens policies. And currently there's an internal review in the Treasury appealing a decision of the Treasury not to release Greens policy costings.

CHRISTINE MILNE: Well governments do it all the time, it's certainly something I would prefer didn't happen. And the Government did it to us as well after the last election, they released a whole lot of costings and used them against the Greens, even though we had never submitted those to Treasury.

ANNA HENDERSON: Senator Milne says the Coalition must agree to put all major policies to the new independent parliamentary budget office.

CHRISTINE MILNE: As long as the Coalition's not prepared to do that the Government is going to take advantage of that and basically do their own costings on what they assume the Coalition's policies are and release them anyway.